Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

X
Segment 1

[0805] for my stiff leg. [0806] Without ceasing to ply me with delicacies she kept up
a chatter of which I did not understand the hundredth part.
[0807] With her own
hand she took off my hat, and took []carried it away, to hang it up somewhere, on
a hatstand []hat-rack I suppose, and seemed surprised when the lace pulled her up in
her stride.
[0808] She had a parrot, very pretty, all the most approved colours.

X
Segment 2

[0809] I understood him better than his mistre[e]ss. [0810] I don't mean I understood him
better than she understood him, I mean I understood him better than I
understood her.
[0811] He said exclaimed from time to time, Fuck the son of a bitch,
Ffuck the son of a bitch.
[0812] He must have belonged to an American sailor,
before he belonged to Lousse.
[0813] Pets often change masters.

X
Segment 3

[0814] He didn't say
much else.
[0815] No, I'm wrong, he also said, Putain de merde! [0816] He must have
belonged to a French sailor before he belonged the to the American sailor.
Putain de merde!
[0817] Unless he had hit on it alone, it wouldn't surprise me.
[0818] Lousse tried to make him say, Pretty Polly!

X
Segment 4

[0819] I think it was too late. [0820] He
listened, his head on one side, pondered, then said, Fuck the son of a
bitch.
[0821] It was clear he was doing his best. [0822] Him too one day she would
bury.
[0823] In his cage rprobably. [0824] Me too, if I had stayed, she would have
buried.
[0825] If I had her address I'd write to her, to come and bury me.

X
Segment 5

[0826] I fell asleep. [0827] I woke up in a bed, in my skin. [0828] They had carried their
impertina[]ence to the point of washing me, to judge by the smell I gave off,
no longer gave off.
[0829] I went to the door. [0830] Locked. [0831] To the window. [0832] Barred.
[0833] It was not yet quite dark. [0834] What is there left to try when you have tried
the door and the window?
[0835] The chimney perhaps. [0836] I loooked for my clothes.

X
Segment 6

[0837] I found a light switch and switched it on. [0838] No result. [0839] What a story!
[0840] All that left me cold, or nearly. [0841] I found my crutches, against an easy
chair.
[0842] It may seem strange that I was able to go through the motions
I have described without their help.
[0843] I find it strange. [0844] You don't
remember wh immediately who you are, when you wake.
[0845] On a chair I found

Transcription
  • Segments